brooks



`(No Model.) E. J. BROOKS.

SEAL.

Patented Aug. 22, 1893.

IIFII UNTTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD J. BROOKS, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO THE E. J. BROOKS dt COMPANY, OF, NEW YORK, N. Y.

SEAL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 503,645, dated August 22, 1893. Application filed February 17, 1893. Serial No. 462.746. (N o model.)

To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, EDWARD J. BROOKS, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of East Orange, in the State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Seals, of which the following isa specitication.

This invention relates primarily to seals for use in connection with tags to mark meat which has been officially approved for export by the meat-inspectors of the Agricultural Department; but it may be embodied in seals for securing car-door fastenings and for other purposes.

The invention consists in certain combinations of parts, as hereinafter set forth and claimed; its objects being the production of light and easily identified seals adapted to be made very small or of any required size, and combined seals and tags which can be quickly applied to meat and Which cannot be retracted through the meat without detection.

A sheet of drawings accompanies this speciiication, as part thereof.

Figure 1 of the drawings is an elevation of a combined seal and tag in which the tag is looped to the seal after the latter is pressed. Fig. 2 is a back View, partly in section, and with an appended top View of the seal part,

showin g the tag preliminarily attached to the shackle of an otherwise similar seal and tag. Fig. 3 is an elevation of a needle used for applying such seals and tags to meat after the parts are united. Figs. 4 and 5 are face and back views of a seal and tag so applied. Fig. 6 shows a like seal applied to car door staples. Fig. 7 shows an elevation of the shackle, a section through the seal part and a top view of such seal-part of a modified seal. Fig. 8 shows an elevation of the shackle, sectional and side Views of the rivet, a section through the cup, and a sectional top View of the loosely united parts of another modified seal. Fig. 9 shows an elevation of the shackle, a section through the seal part and a top view of such seal-part of another modified seal. Fig. 10 shows a sectional elevation and an appended side View of the rivet of another modified seal. Fig. 11 is an elevation illustrating the mode of uniting the parts of the seal last named preparatory to pressing; and

Fig. l2 represents a magnified section through this seal after it is pressed.

Like letters refer to corresponding parts in all the views.

The improved seal is adapted to be made of various forms, as illustrated by the drawings. In each form the ends of a exible shackle A, preferably of thin single wire, are united and secured against fraudulent separation without detection by means of a sealpart composed of a com pressible plug or rivet B, which may be of lead, and a thimble or cup C having a wide open end which remains open and surrounds the shackle after the seal is pressed, and which incloses and amplities said rivet; and in each form a tag D of suitable paper or other approved material is 0r may be attached tothe shackle, as

in Figs. l to 5.

The tags D may be printed or otherwise provided with all necessary explanations, and such veriications, dac., as numbers,signatures, stamps and the like, and may be as large or as small as may be preferred.

The cups C are intended to be struck up from tin or the like printed in the sheet, so as to bear initials, numbers or other distinguishing marks, as represented at .e in Figs. l, t and 6. Theymay instead be plain, or simply of distinguishing colors, as represented in Fig. 1l. The plain cup shown in this figure at C may be of any color.

The rivets B, owing to their combination with such cups, may be of minimum weight. They may be preliminarily attached to the cups, or fastened therein, by a partial pressing, which forms a retaining bulge y, as in Figs. 2 and 7, or simply tightly tted in some shapes, for the same purpose, as in Eig. 9; or the parts may Simply be adapted to be united at the factory or where like care can be taken as in Figs. 8 and 10 to l2.

Ordinarily the improved seals will be pressed, so as to permanently unite the shackles and seal-parts, at the factory, when the seals are to be combined with tags for marking inspected meat; and the tags may as aforesaid be looped to the shackles either subsequently as in Figs. l to 5 or preliminarily as in Fig. 2.

The united or combined seals and-tags are applied 'to the meat with as much speed as may be necessary, by means of a needle E,

Fig. 3, the recessed point of which admits` and masks the seal-part, as in the gure, and carries it through the meat F, Figs. 4 and 5.

The slitv cut in the meat by the needle is reclosed by its elasticity, and, as the meat soon becomes rigid, cannot be reopened. The shackle is made short enough so that the tag,

after the seal is so applied, cannot be un' looped from the' shackle if so attached; and the tag could not be drawn through the meat vwithout so defacing it, or so cutting the meat,

the like, and theseal-part would then be ap# plied to the shackle-ends and pressed in customary manner.

All the seals represented by Figs. l to 6 are of one and the same construction, for which see Fig. 2. Both ends of each shackle Aihave anchoring bends w, the rivets B, of customary rivet-shape, have pockets c closed at bottom to admit such shackle-ends, and the cups C have internal flanges u at bottom to coact with said bulges y by which the rivets and cups are preliminarily united. In the seal represented by Fig. 7 each end of the shackle A has a number of such anchoring bends w, or it may be of the kind set forth in my speciy fication forming part of Patent No. 323,849,

dated August 4, 1885, the rivet B has through vholes v2 fitted to the shackle ends, and the rivet B and cup C have respectively the bulge y and the flange u above described. In the seal represented by Fig. 8 the shackle A' is plain throughout; the rivetB is headless,l and has a transverse hole t and longitudinal stem of its rivet B 'are provided with grooves s? to admit the shackle-ends, and the lower end of the cup C is simply contracted so as to fit said stem tightly. The seal represented by Figs. 10, 1l and 12 has its shackle A of plain thin wire; its rivet B, of customary rivet-shape, has a transverse hole t2 in its stem through which the shackle ends are passed `as in Fig. ll, after which the cup C is drawn down over the rivet as in Fig. 10; and the cup has a circumferential groove q and a depending rim p, which latter surrounds the head of the rivet and coacts therewith to secure the wire preliminarily and after it is pressed, as in Figs. 10 and 12. All these seals are pressed by compressing the rivet B between suitably shaped plier-ends or the like, and stamping either or preferably both of its ends at the same time with distinguishing marks n m Fig. 12,'of any description, such as the initials or numbers of inspection stations, -thestation numbers of railways, or the like.

Thecup C is in no case pressed at all, and its Wide open end remains open of course after the seal is pressed ,for the purposes herei-nbefore set forth, viz: to amplify the rivet as to size, and in the case of meat seals to insure detection in case theseal-part is pulled' through the meat. Y

Various forms of cups are shown to illustrate their vadaptation to be thus diversified for dierent uses.

The anchoring devices w 1.02, and other like anchoring devices, may be used interchangeably in the respective seals; and other like modifications will suggest themselves to Vthose l ment, I claim as my invention and desire to patent under this specificationl. In combination with a flexible sealing shackle, a seal-part having a shackle-securing portion which is pressed to fasten the seal, and a cup-shaped portion with a wide open end which remains open and surrounds the shackle above said shackle-securing portion, substantially as hereinbefore specified, for

y the purposes set forth. Y

2. A seal composed of a flexible shackle, a compressible rivet"7 which secures bothends of said shackle, and a sheet metal cup, interlocked with said rivet, having an open end which remains open after the seal is pressed and surrounds the shackle above said rivet,

substantially as hereinbefore specified.

EDWARD J. BROOKS. Witnesses:

H. L. C. WENK, N. S. KLINE.

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